Tumors in living organisms are highly variable in size, location and their amount of infiltration into normal tissues, and the variability of tumors in general make them very difficult to treat with a one-size fits all approach. Furthermore, the extent of tumors and/or void created upon debulking are typically not known until presented in the operating room. Thus the options necessary to effectively treat a tumor or tumor bed need to be quite diverse.
Brachytherapy involves placing a radiation source either into or immediately adjacent to a tumor. It provides an effective treatment of cancers of many body sites. Brachytherapy, as a component of multimodality cancer care, provides cost-effective treatment. Brachytherapy may be intracavitary, such as when treating gynecologic malignancies; intraluminal, such as when treating esophageal or lung cancers; external surface, such as when treating cancers of the skin, or interstitial, such as when treating various central nervous system tumors as well as extracranial tumors of the head and neck, lung, soft tissue, gynecologic sites, rectum, liver, prostate, penis and skin.